Chapter 78: Chapter 78: Who Are You Calling a Villain?

The residence of the Ice Sea Demon Monarch appears quite simple, merely a thatched cottage.

As soon as Chu Xuan arrived, the door automatically opened, and the inside was dark, as if devouring all light.

He merely glanced around before calmly entering.

"Senior Brother Li, it’s me. Regarding yesterday’s matters, there are some points I’m unclear about and would like to ask for guidance."

Li Xingchuan’s cold voice sounded, "You really know how to play along, already starting to call me Senior Brother."

Chu Xuan smiled slightly, "We do have some rapport, and we worked well together last time, can’t just call you by your name, right?"

"Calling you senior sounds too distant, so I’ll call you Senior Brother Li."

Li Xingchuan no longer dwelled on it and said directly, "Speak."

"Yesterday, you warned me to be careful of Gu Haitang. I’m rather slow and don’t understand your reasoning, so I hope you can enlighten me."

Although he didn’t want to guess blindly, Chu Xuan thought that Li Xingchuan probably believed Gu Haitang approached him with ulterior motives, but on what basis?

"It’s just as it appears—when dealing with these so-called virtuous hypocrites, be cautious."

Chu Xuan was initially stunned, then found it somewhat amusing, "Is that it? I thought you had some solid evidence, or rather, shocking proof."

"Besides, aren’t you mocking me? You should know, we’re now part of the righteous path ourselves."

Li Xingchuan said in a carefree tone, "I’m a true villain, Fuyunzi is a true gentleman, most of the righteous are hypocrites. Do you understand that?"

Chu Xuan nodded, "I see. So, in your eyes, am I a villain or a gentleman?"

Ever since he stepped into this thatched hut, all he could see was darkness.

But with that question, the room suddenly brightened, and daylight normally shone in through the windows and door.

The room was empty except for a black jade bed, on which the handsome, cold Li Xingchuan sat cross-legged.

He looked at Chu Xuan with a strange smile, saying nothing.

This made Chu Xuan feel a bit uneasy. Why are you looking at me like that? Is something wrong? I only like women!

"And why did you warn me, Senior Brother? It can’t just be because we cooperated last time, right?"

This time, Li Xingchuan finally answered, "Because we are the same kind of people."

Chu Xuan’s heart skipped a beat. What does that mean?

He quickly waved his hand, "No, no, no, I’m not a villain. Don’t use that ’we’re all villains’ tone with me."

If he could beat him, Chu Xuan would have liked to kick Li Xingchuan. Who’s a villain with you!

Li Xingchuan didn’t mind, he simply continued, "That Gu Haitang, her cultivation technique probably isn’t the ’Supreme Jade Emperor Heart Seal Scripture.’"

"That’s not unusual, right? With her ’Chaos Holy Embryo,’ not cultivating a chaos-type technique would be a waste."

Not to mention Gu Haitang, even Chu Xuan himself didn’t cultivate the ’Cyan Lotus Technique.’ He didn’t see this as a point of suspicion.

Li Xingchuan, however, shook his head. "I encountered someone cultivating her kind of technique years ago. A very troublesome opponent, clearly not a good person."

"After many years, I feel that same subtle sense around Gu Haitang, so my senses instinctively locked onto her."

"And also, don’t you think she’s gotten too close to you too quickly? It’s only been a short time since you met."

Chu Xuan nodded slightly, realizing these were Li Xingchuan’s reasons for suspecting Gu Haitang.

"In any case, thank you for informing me, Senior Brother. Now that the people from the Purple Heaven Jade Mansion have left, I’ll be more careful in the future."

At this point, Chu Xuan was somewhat inclined to ask about the Celestial Evil Demon Venerable.

He hadn’t asked six years ago because he was still a suspect and unsure about Li Xingchuan.

But now, given his excellent performance since joining, most of the Cyan Lotus Daoist Palace had come to recognize Chu Xuan as one of their own.

And Li Xingchuan had shown a certain degree of goodwill towards him...

"What are you hesitating for?" 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

Li Xingchuan’s sharp question came as soon as Chu Xuan hesitated for a split second.

He finally made up his mind, "Senior Brother Li, I have an irreconcilable enmity with a demon, but I don’t know his name or history, only that he wields a black souls banner..."

Instead of asking about the Celestial Evil, Chu Xuan first inquired about the Six Souls Banner.

After he finished, Li Xingchuan just shook his head, "Never heard of it."

Chu Xuan had anticipated this, so he continued, "But I learned from an elder that the demon seems to be connected with the famous Celestial Evil Demon Venerable, likely his subordinate."

"I wonder what insights you might have about Celestial Evil?"

Li Xingchuan paused before responding, "I’m not a cultivator from that era. If you want to know about him, you might as well ask those older generations in the sect who have lived for over a thousand years."

"Among them, someone might have seen Tian Xie and maybe even had dealings with the Demon Venerable."

By the end, Chu Xuan could vaguely detect a hint of mockery.

Li Xingchuan didn’t hold back, "To tell you the truth, ever since Tian Xie died, the demonic path has even suspected that Tian Xie and the righteous path staged a play back then, resulting in the death of many demonic experts."

"After three major battles between the righteous and demonic paths, the demonic path suffered heavy losses. While the righteous path was also affected, it was mainly the Profound Celestial Sect, Tian Xie’s main enemy, that suffered the most."

Chu Xuan was puzzled, "But why would he do that? He didn’t come to a good end either, did he?"

"Who knows, maybe he just wanted to act on behalf of the heavenly path," Li Xingchuan said carelessly, as if he didn’t even believe his own words.

Chu Xuan nodded, "I’ll go ask the Supreme Elders of the sect later."

"Today I came to seek advice from senior brother mainly because you were once part of the demonic path, and you might have a different perspective."

Li Xingchuan looked at Chu Xuan with an amused expression, "Are you very interested in Tian Xie’s affairs?"

Chu Xuan simply responded with a composed expression and didn’t speak.

The Ice Sea Demon Monarch didn’t press further, but continued:

"Tian Xie was a person of legendary life, if you’re really interested, you can hear many different stories about him from various people, both true and false."

"Then let me tell you a story that you won’t hear from others."

"Isn’t the Baohua Banquet, which occurs once every two cycles, about to take place? Few people know that this gathering of many female cultivators in the cultivation world was initially organized by a ’hermit’ in Wuyou Valley at the instigation of Tian Xie."

Chu Xuan was shocked, as he had long planned to go down the mountain for training two years later.

At that time, he intended to go to Wuyou Valley to participate in the Baohua Banquet, which is a key step in obtaining intelligence on Ji Mingyu. However, he never expected that even the origins of the Baohua Banquet were related to the Celestial Evil Demon Venerable.

"The Wuyou Valley in Zhao Kong Mountain, early on inherited the teachings of an ancient scattered immortal, and was initially one of the orthodox sects of the mysterious path."

"However, over the years, their disciples became accustomed to cultivating in seclusion, indifferent to worldly conflicts, until they were once breached by the demonic sect and suffered heavy losses."

"After that incident, the transmission of Wuyou Valley broke, and the younger generation that grew up had mixed virtues, gradually turning the sect into an evil path sect that prioritized personal desires."

"They acted recklessly, centering on self, and pursued their own thoughts as the paramount priority, committing many evil deeds."

"Therefore, they were later besieged by the righteous sects and suffered heavy losses once more."

"After that battle, Wuyou Valley was left with only a few members, and gradually became a sect led by women."

"To avoid repeating the mistakes of their predecessors, the six hermits simply vowed to become a neutral sect that wouldn’t get involved in the conflicts between good and evil."

"Wuyou Valley has no headmaster, and is jointly managed by six ’hermits’, with the lifelong goal of cultivating into true scattered immortals, living freely without restraints."

"At that time, Tian Xie assumed the alias ’Cold Yu Bing’ and was close with one of the hermits, and it was rumored that there was a rather intimate relationship between them."

"With Tian Xie’s secret support, the Wuyou Valley gradually developed and grew stronger, and even the Baohua Banquet was Tian Xie’s idea, naturally to create an opportunity to lure many beauties from the cultivation world to the sect with the intent to capture them all."

"Of course, he didn’t succeed, and although the first session was relatively small in scale, it was conducted reasonably well and gradually gained fame."

"Later, Tian Xie was preoccupied with various big affairs and couldn’t care less about the Baohua Banquet, handing over everything for Wuyou Valley to deal with."

"As each session was held, they somehow managed to create a bit of a spectacle, and the upcoming session will be the sixth."

"It is said that even the legendary Primordial Monarch Taixu will attend in two years."

"I wonder what expressions these fairies and divine maidens will have when they learn the origin of this grand gathering they’re about to attend?"

At the last sentence, Li Xingchuan’s face showed a playful and mocking smile.

But soon, he noticed Chu Xuan wasn’t quite right, "What’s wrong with you?"

In fact, when Li Xingchuan uttered the words "Cold Yu Bing," Chu Xuan was immediately frozen in place as if struck by lightning.

Back when he inadvertently discovered information about the Celestial Evil Demon Venerable in the Scripture Repository, Chu Xuan seized multiple opportunities to read everything related to Tian Xie piece by piece.

But the more he read, the more he had an indescribable sense of immersion, because Tian Xie’s thought patterns were very similar to his own.

If Chu Xuan were in a similar situation, there was a high probability he would make the same choices, which is why he felt quite displeased with Tian Xie’s tragic end.

Since then, Chu Xuan had a vague premonition but didn’t want to admit it.

Until now, the words "Cold Yu Bing" struck like a sharp sword, forcing him to confront his true self.

Cold Yu Bing comes from the Qing dynasty supernatural novel "The Wizard of Oz." He was originally a talented scholar from the Jiajing Period of the Ming dynasty, but after offending Yan Song’s party, his official career was impeded. Seeing through worldly affairs, he abandoned Confucianism for Taoism, ultimately attaining immortality after enduring numerous hardships.

In his past life, Chu Xuan had read this classical novel and thought the protagonist’s name sounded cool, fitting his teenage sense of aesthetics as a high school student.

He once fantasized that if he could cultivate to immortality, he could use this name as an alias...

Even the title "Jade Taoist" was something Chu Xuan had considered in his past life, but similar Taoist names weren’t uncommon, so previously he could silently convince himself: coincidence, it’s all just coincidence.

But now, can this be coincidence too?